Can CAFOs be Concentrated Animal “Friendly” Operations?

Many people think of CAFOs in a negative way. I will admit that even I have lost myself in all the research pointing to the dark side of concentrated animal feeding operations.

However I recently attended an event at Pace University at which Dr. Sam Simon, president of Hudson Valley Fresh, was the guest speaker. During this event Dr. Simon made me realize that not all CAFOs are the same.

In the Hudson Valley Fresh Company they have a total of 9 dairy farms working to produce milk here in New York. Two are large enough to be considered CAFOs. According to Dr. Simon, CAFOs are more closely regulated and are typically inspected twice a month, while dairy farms are inspected every time milk is being sold. If a dairy farm’s tank of milk is tested positive for antibiotics, the farmer must purchase all of the milk in that tank and gets a fined. By the third fine, a farmer can be practically out of business.

Recently Governor Andrew Cuomo reduced the regulations and permit requirements for dairy farms so that farms with 300 cows or more would be considered a CAFO rather than the original standard of 200 cows. Dr. Simon believes that “CAFO farms are a friend to the cow” and that the farms we should be concerned about are those that are now “flying under the radar” with these new regulations. Because of deregulation, farms that have less than 300 cows are not required to satisfy as many requirements for protecting the environment and animal welfare.

Dr. Simon added that livestock on a CAFO are not able to graze in pasturelands, if such large herds were let out to graze, the environment would be damaged. “Imagine 300 cows stomping around,” he said, adding that there soon wouldn’t be anything left to graze.

The bottom line is that not all CAFO-size operations treat animals poorly or inject them with antibiotics to make them produce more. Yes, there are some bad CAFOs out there but that doesn’t qualify for everyone.

It’s our job to attempt to differentiate between the good and bad CAFOs and continue pressing to maintain regulations that prevent more farms from tipping toward the dark side.

1 Comment

Ellie
on May 29, 2014 at 6:45 pm

So these are the good kinds of CAFOs? Great! So after the cows give birth to their babies in order to produce milk for us, where do the babies get to live out their stress-free full lives until they die of old age? And what happens to the dairy cows once they are no longer able to produce milk anymore? Surely they just get to chill with their babies in happy land, right? I can’t imagine why you’d leave that part out! Telling us about how they aren’t killed when they are no longer useful to us seems like some good evidence to back up your claim of caring about animals!

Because if they are just send off to the same slaughterhouses that animals from the “bad” CAFOs go to, I fail to see what’s so “good” about this situation. The dairy industry is the reason veal exists. These animals might be exploited less badly than those at the “bad” CAFOs, but they are still exploited: they are treated as commodities who live and for our purpose. They are killed when it suits the farmer. Because why would a farmer spend any resources feeding an animal once it can’t produce any milk for them? We have for some reason decided that their lives belong not to themselves, but to us.

If Dr. Simon belives that “CAFO farms are a friend to the cow”, I should be glad he doesn’t consider me his friend. Otherwise he might think it’s totally ok to send me off to some slaughterhouse once he can no longer steal what’s mine in order to sell it to a public misinformed about nutrition. But it’s ok though, because at least he won’t put antibiotics in my milk.

TL;DR:
1. Continuing to get breast fed in adulthood is not necessary. We “need” the milk intended for calfs just as much as we “need” milk intended for kittens of baby giraffes.

2. Unless i’m completely wrong, these animals are still getting hurt as a result of being killed. They are also denied the joy of the time taken away from them as a result of the slaughter.

Therefore: This is still unnecessary violence. It’s a shame you try to dress it up as “animal welfare”. Welfare =/= using an animal and then killing it when you’re done with it. I’ve always thought that someone’s welfare is about what’s best for that individual in question, not what’s best for those who make money off of said individual even though the individual is unable to consent.

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Now for some science:
* Calcium absorbs just as well from soymilk as it does from cow’s milk: (nutritionfacts.org/video/calcium-absorption-soy-milk-versus-cow-milk/)
* The calcium is dark green leafy vegetables is absorbed twice as well as the calcium in cow’s milk, without all the cholesterol, saturated fat, bacteria found in feces, and puss. (nutritionfacts.org/video/plant-vs-cow-calcium-2/)
* Even organic milk increases the growth rate of tumors (while almond milk suppresses it). (nutritionfacts.org/video/prostate-cancer-and-organic-milk-vs-almond-milk/) This could be due to all the hormones that occur in milk naturally, even without humans adding any extra hormones.
* The protein casein in dairy leads to weight gain (nutritionfacts.org/video/milk-protein-vs-soy-protein/)
*If that wasn’t bad enough, dairy actually blocks berry nutrients from being absorbed! (nutritionfacts.org/video/nutrient-blocking-effects-of-dairy/)

ANY dairy food can be made vegan and be:
~every bit as delicious
~healthier
~free from violence and killing.

* Almond milk in 6 steps in pictures(the-renegade-rose.tumblr.com/post/81097757651/getthisfirefighterfit-almond-milk-tutorial)
For the following, I couldn’t pick any examples… THEY ARE ALL SO BEAUTIFUL!!!
* tumblr.com/search/vegan+dessert
* tumblr.com/search/vegan+pizza
* tumblr.com/search/vegan+cheese
* tumblr.com/search/vegan+chocolate
LITERALLY TYPE IN “VEGAN+ANYTHING YOU CAN IMAGINE” IN ANY SEARCH ENGINE AND YOU’LL GET DELICIOUS LOOKING RESULTS.

So I repeat:
There’s no logical reason for consuming dairy.
There’s no moral justification for exploiting these cows.

And I ask that you stop exploiting these cows and using dairy right now. Don’t try to exploit them less badly. Don’t set a deadline to totally do the right thing in the future because you’re too busy. Everyone is busy. Knowing this, how can anyone make any excuses to support a harmless, needless practice? So stop right now. There’s absolutely no reason not to.